EPISODE 1

Above:  Earth Ship Ark, in A.D. 2790

A Screen Capture

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Aired September 22, 1973

0:49:36

The episode is available here.

STARRING

Keir Dullea as Devon

Gay Rowan as Rachel

Robin Ward as Garth

GUEST STARRING

Sterling Hayden as Old Jeremiah

George Sperdakos as Jubal

Gillie Fenwick as Old Abraham

William Osler as Computer Voice and Host

Sean Sullivan as Rachel’s Father

Aileen Seaton as Rachel’s Mother

Jim Barron as Garth’s Father

Kay Hawtrey as Garth’s Mother

Scott Fisher as Small Boy

BEHIND THE CAMERAS

Series created by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison)

Episode written by Cordwainer Bird (Harlan Ellison, rewritten by Norman Klenman)

Story Consultant = Norman Klenman

Director = Harvey Hart

Science Consultant = Ben Bova

Producer = William Davidson

Executive Producers = Douglas Trumbull and Jerry Zeitman

Above:  The Title Card for The Starlost

A Screen Capture

BACKGROUND

Harlan Ellison (d. 2018) was one of the greatest writers.  He, like many great artists, was also temperamental.  In the late 1970s, Ellison, displeased with his publisher having violated his contract and ignored peaceful attempts to redress the matter, got revenge.  The first step was mailing 213 individually-wrapped bricks to the comptroller of the company.  The second step involved an incompetent yet menacing Lithuanian hit man making veiled threats.  The third step was a description of how one dies of a heart condition.  (Ellison’s mother had died of a heart condition the previous year, and the comptroller of the publishing company had a heart condition.)  The fourth step–the successful one–was mailing a dead gopher via Fourth-Class mail in the summer.  The story of the company fumigating the mail room and perhaps the comptroller’s office, at great expense, have passed into legend.  The comptroller finally honored Ellison’s contract after getting out of heart surgery.

I wonder what Ellison would have done had the dead gopher not proven so persuasive.

The people who made The Starlost got off lightly.  Ellison invoked his contractual right to remove his name and substitute “Cordwainer Bird,” as “for the birds” and “flipping the bird.”  Ellison also went on profane rants about these people.  He went on profane rants about many people.

I could paraphrase the full story, but I why would I?  Ellison told it well (minus profanity) in the introduction to Edward Bryant‘s 1975 novelization of Ellison’s screenplay for Phoenix Without Ashes, the original, intended version of what became Voyage of Discovery after Norman Klenman rewrote it.

Ben Bova, unlike Ellison, failed in having his name removed from the credits.  Bova, the science consultant, consulted, but nobody heeded his advice.  Bova got literary revenge in a novel, The Starcrossed (1975).  The novel, a fictionalized version of the behind-the-scenes reality of The Starlost, is hilarious.  It explains that scripts came from high school students in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  (That part may be fiction.)  The depiction of Ron Gabriel, the Ellison-figure, is vivid.  Gabriel’s reputation led to “an old Hollywood motto”:

Never let that sonofabitch back into the studio…unless we need him.

(That part may not be fiction.)

In real life, Norman Klenman was in charge of scripts, and William Davidson was the producer.  Both men told Ellison that they did not understand science fiction.

Series production occurred in Canada, for economic reasons.  Ellison, writing in his introduction to the novelization of Phoenix Without Ashes, recalled that the writers with whom he met were not bad writers, but that they failed to understand science fiction and dramatic writing.

The Starlost aired on the CTV Network in Canada and on NBC in the United States.

In Ellison’s original plan, The Starlost would run for four or five years, with our heroes finding the Bridge of the Earth Ship Ark in the final episode.  In the series, our heroes found the Bridge in the first episode.

There were eighteen completed scripts and sixteen produced episodes.  NBC euthanized The Starlost when it chose not to order the final eight episodes that would have brought the total to twenty-four.

The opening credits included this narration:

Earth Ship Ark:  Man’s greatest and final achievement, out of control, drifting through deep space over eight hundred years in the far future.  Its passengers:  descendants of the last survivors of the dead planet Earth, locked into separate worlds, their destination long forgotten, heading for destruction unless four young people can save…the Starlost.

Where did Garth (Robin Ward’s character) get his hair done throughout the series?  In 2790, Cypress Corners was stuck in the early 1970s.

SUMMARY OF THE EPISODE

The episode opens with Devon, Rachel, and Garth–three young people with bad clothes and worse hair–standing on the Bridge of the Earth Ship Ark and looking out across the top of the vast vessel.  The three stare silently.  Finally, Garth advises going back.  Devon replies, “Never.”

The story flashes back.  Cypress Corners is home to a strict, quasi-Amish society.  It is agricultural and patriarchal.  The leader, Old Jeremiah, rules with an iron fist.  He labels any inconvenient question blasphemous.  He consults a computer called “the Creator.”  Oddly, almost nobody notices that the voice of “the Creator” is that of Old Jeremiah.  “The Creator” specifies who may marry whom and who must never reproduce.  Devon may never reproduce, for he asks too many questions.  He and Rachel love each other, but “the Creator” orders that she marry Garth, a blacksmith.  Garth is a conformist; he does as the elders dictate.  Garth also does not love Rachel.  Rachel is resigned that she will marry Garth.

Above:  Old Jeremiah

There is an old coot nobody–not even Old Jeremiah–dare harm.  That old coot is Old Abraham, who camps out near a door with a lock beside it.  Old Abraham is allegedly a fool.  Paint on the door proclaims,

BEYOND IS DEATH!

Most residents of Cypress Corners remain content never to test that statement.  Even Old Abraham lacks the courage to find out for himself.  But he holds onto a door key he had found lying around decades prior.  He opens the door for Devon, who escapes after witnessing Old Jeremiah dictating a recording into “the Creator” then confronting Old Jeremiah.

Devon finds himself in a corridor.  He steps on some round green foam and flies through the air, down the corridor, into another corridor.  Devon walks around until he finds a sphere projector–a computer interface–in a small room someone must have dusted recently.

Above:  Devon and the Sphere Projector

The sphere projector is annoying and condescending.  It also has interesting facial expressions.  It opens with a question:

Can I be of …assistance?

This sphere projector–Mu Lambda 165–lays down much exposition.  Cypress Corners is not a planet.  No, it is Biosphere AG3 of the Earth Ship Ark.  Humans are originally from the planet Earth, a dead world.  All of this is news to Devon.

But wait, there’s more!

In 2285, a “catastrophe of galactic proportions threatened all Earth life with extinction.”  Therefore, a committee of scientists and philosophers guided a project that entailed the construction of the Earth Ship Ark between the Earth and the Moon.  Three million people, representing distinct cultures, moved into biospheres, and the Earth Ship Ark departed for deep space.  The vessel’s mission was to find a habitable planet in the solar system of a “Class-G star.”  However, a century later, in 2385, an unexplained accident occurred.  The ship has been adrift, locked into a collision course with a “Class-G solar star” since then.

The current year is 2790.  The sphere projector refers Devon to the Bridge for more information, for some reason.

Devon returns to Cypress Corners and crashes his funeral.  Old Jeremiah, citing the authority of “the Creator,” orders Devon arrested and sentences him to death by stoning.  Garth breaks Devon out of jail with a shovel and asks him to leave Cypress Corners.  Devon does leave–with Rachel.  In then presence of Old Jeremiah and others, Old Abraham opens the iris so Garth can depart, too.  Old Jeremiah forbids Garth’s departure, but Garth, armed with a crossbow, vows to return with Rachel.  Old Jeremiah leaves Old Abraham alone.

Devon and Rachel find the Bridge.  So does Garth, for he is pursuing them.  The three of them walk onto the extremely messy Bridge, populated only by a skeleton in a uniform.  They see outer space, the top of the vessel, and something Devon correctly surmises is a star.

Above:  The View from the Bridge

Yet Another Screen Capture

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Why does Old Jeremiah never punish Old Abraham?

Why does the sphere projector refer to a “solar star”?  Harlan Ellison mentioned this is an example of the scientific illiteracy of the series.

Does Cypress Corners have a hair salon?  Garth seems to have been there.

Who designed that annoying computer interface program?

Why are most of the residents of Cypress Corners conformist, non-questioning lemmings?

What was the nature of the accident in 2385?  Ellison specified that the answer would come in the final episode, in the fourth year of the series.

Next episode:  Lazarus from the Mist

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 31, 2021 COMMON ERA

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All images in this post are screen captures from a series that is freely available at archive.org and YouTube.

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Above:  The Flag of England

Image in the Public Domain

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EDWARD BUNNETT (JUNE 26, 1834-JANUARY 5, 1923)

Anglican Organist and Composer

Edward Bunnett comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Hymnal (1941), of the old Evangelical and Reformed Church.

Bunnett served God via music.  our saint, born in Shipdham, Norfolk, England, on June 26, 1834, became a chorister at the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Cathedral, Norwich, when he was eight years old.  When our saint was fifteen years old, he began to study the organ under the tutelage of Dr. Zechariah Buck (1798-1877), organist at Norwich Cathedral (1819-1877).  Bunnett, the assistant organist at Norwich Cathedral (1855-1877), also had a fine singing voice.  In 1849, he performed Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s “Lift Thine Eyes” with opera star Jenny Lind (1820-1887), the “Swedish Nightingale.”  Our saint continued his formal studies at Cambridge, earning a Mus.B. (1857) and Mus.D. (1869).  In 1870, he became a Fellow of the College of Organists.

Bunnett, renowned for his virtuosity, taught, performed, and composed.  He became the organist of St. Peter Mancraft Church, Norwich, in 1877.  As the borough organist (1880f), our saint performed in well-attended concerts.  He also conducted the Norwich Musical Union for 21 years and performed in local musical festivals for more than 20 years.  Bunnett taught many organists, too.  His compositions included works for the organ, liturgical music and at least 21 hymn tunes and Christmas carols.

Links to YouTube videos of some of Bunnett’s compositions follow:

1. Allegro moderato in G Major,
2. Concluding Voluntary, and
3. KIRBY BEDON.

Our saint, aged 88 years, died in Norwich on January 5, 1923.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 30, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT NICODEMUS, DISCIPLE OF JESUS

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Holy God, whose majesty surpasses all human definitions and capacity to grasp,

thank you for those (especially Edward Bunnett)

who have nurtured and encouraged the reverent worship of you.

May their work inspire us to worship you in knowledge, truth, and beauty.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

1 Chronicles 25:1-8

Psalm 145

Revelation 15:1-4

John 4:19-26

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 27, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES INTERCISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR

THE FEAST OF HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN THEOLOGIAN

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The Georgia Board of Regents, which controls the University System of Georgia, mandates neither masks nor COVID-19 vaccinations during this pandemic.

This is irresponsible.  I read news stories about K-12 teachers and students in the state dying of COVID-19.  I also live within walking distance of the main campus of The University of Georgia.  I drive through campus and see crowds of students walking.  I see relatively few of them wearing masks.

By the way, I work, albeit remotely, for The University of Georgia, so I may be biting the hand that feeds me by writing and publishing this post.  So be it.  “I gotta be me,” as the saying goes.  I insist on taking a stand.

The Fall Semester began last week.  Already, to my knowledge, four faculty members at three institutions of the University System of Georgia have resigned abruptly.  They have (a) had the financial ability to quit their jobs, and (b) have valued their health.  Perhaps the most famous case was that of an 88-year-old part-time psychology.  He had come out of retirement to share his talents with the university community.  Dr. Bernstein had a justifiable rule:  No masks, no class.  One young woman refused to wear a mask properly.  When Dr. Bernstein realized she would not wear the mask properly in class, he abruptly resumed his retirement.  He cut that class session short and left.  He was correct.  The combination of age and an underlying health condition made Dr. Bernstein more susceptible than some to COVID-19.

Mark my words:  If the Board of Regents does not alter its policy soon, it will have to contend with more professors choosing their lives over their courses.  I pity those faculty members for whom the choice is between financial ruin and potentially contracting COVID-19.

I also wish Dr. Bernstein a longer and healthy life.

Furthermore, I remember when I was applying for admission to institutions of the University System of Georgia.  I recall having to document that I had received certain vaccinations.  I also remember having to get certain vaccinations.

That made sense.

The University System of Georgia should add COVID-19 to the list of diseases against which to be vaccinated.  It should also mandate wearing masks in classrooms.  It should do so immediately.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 30, 2021 COMMON ERA

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Above:  Blessed Nikolaus Gross

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED NIKOLAUS GROSS (SEPTEMBER 30, 1898-JANUARY 23, 1945)

German Roman Catholic Opponent of Nazism, and Martyr, 1945

Blessed Nikolaus Gross comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church.

Gross, born in Niederwenigern, German Empire, on September 30, 1898, gave his life in the cause of opposing institutionalized injustice.  Our saint’s father was a miner.  Gross was also a miner (1915-1920).  Then he left the mines yet remained active in union politics.  Our saint, a member of the Christian Mineworkers’ Trade Union (1917f) and Saint Anthony’s Miners’ Association (1918f), had been taking night classes before quitting mining.  His post-mining activities included:

1. Serving as the secretary of the Christian Mineworkers’ Trade Union (1920-1921);
2. Serving as the assistant editor of that union’s newspaper (1921-1922);
3. Serving as a union secretarial worker in Waldenburg, Lower Silesia (1922), in Zwickau (1922-1924) then in Bottrop (1924-1926);
4. Serving as the assistant editor of the newspaper of the Catholic Workers’ Movement (1927-1929); and
5. Serving as the general editor of that publication (1929f).

In the meantime, the misnamed National Socialist Party, or the Nazi Party, was rising.  It was actually fascist, not socialist.  Gross, in his editorial capacity, opposed the Nazis.  The Nazi-controlled government banned his newspaper for three weeks in 1933, for another short period of time in early 1935, and permanently in November 1938.  After the permanent banning, the publication continued illegally.

The assassination plot against Adolf Hitler failed on July 20, 1944.  In the wake of that event, Nazi authorities arrested Gross, who had not been involved in the conspiracy.  Our saint, apprehended on August 12, 1944, went to trial on the charge of treason.  The verdict was guilty, of course.  The sentence, imposed on January 15, 1945, was death.  Eight days later, he died by hanging.  Our saint was 46 years old.  Nazi authorities had the corpse cremated and the cremains scattered at a sewage plant.

Survivors included our saint’s wife, Elisabeth Koch (1901-1971), whom he married on May 24, 1923, and six of the couple’s seven children.  Four or five of those children survived to witness Pope John Paul II declare their father a Venerable then a Blessed in 2001.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 30, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JEANNE JUGAN, FOUNDER OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR

THE FEAST OF CARLTON C. BUCK, U.S. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST MINISTER, MUSICIAN, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GERALD KENNEDY, U.S. METHODIST BISHOP AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN LEARY, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVIST AND ADVOCATE FOR THE POOR AND MARGINALIZED

THE FEAST OF KARL OTTO EBERHARDT, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST, MUSIC EDUCATOR, AND COMPOSER

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Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Blessed Nikolaus Gross

triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death:

Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving,

to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world,

that we may receive with him the crown of life;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 51:1-12

Psalm 116 or 116:1-8

Revelation 7:13-17

Luke 12:2-12

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 714

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Above:  Logos of The Methodist Church (1939-1968) and The United Methodist Church (1968-)

Photograph by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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JOHN MARINUS VERSTEEG (SEPTEMBER 9, 1888-JANUARY 14, 1977)

U.S. Methodist Minister and Hymn Writer

John Marinus Versteeg comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Hymnal (1941), of the old Evangelical and Reformed Church.

Versteeg was a native of The Netherlands.  He, born in Den Heller on September 9, 1888, was a son of Anna Petronella Ollman Versteeg and the Reverend Dir Oren Versteeg.  The family immigrated in 1900, and our saint became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1909.

Versteeg became a Methodist minister.  He served in three successive denominations, due to mergers:  the Methodist Episcopal Church (-1939), The Methodist Church (1939-1968), and The United Methodist Church (1968f).  Our saint, ordained a deacon in 1915, graduated from Drew University, Madison, New Jersey (Bachelor of Divinity, 1916).  Versteeg joined the ranks of elders in 1917.  He wrote The Modern Meaning of Church Membership (1919).

Versteeg was pastor of West Side Methodist Episcopal Church, Jersey City, New Jersey (1920-1921).  During this time, he married Edna Catherine Ames on June 18, 1921.  The couple had four children:  Sherwood, Elaine, Robert, and Virgil.

Our saint served as the pastor of Drew Methodist Episcopal (now United Methodists) Church, Port Jervis, New York (1922-1925).  During these years, Versteeg wrote and published three books:

1. The Deeper Meaning of Stewardship (1923),
2. Christ and the Problems of Youth (1924), and
3. Christianity at Work (1925).

Versteeg was pastor of Roseville Methodist Episcopal  Church (now Roseville St. Paul’s United Methodist Church), Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania (1929-1931).  During this time, he wrote Perpetuating Pentecost (1930).  Our saint also received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania (1931).

Versteeg’s longest tenure was at Walnut Hills-Avondale Methodist Episcopal/Methodist Church, Cincinnati, Ohio (1932-1945).  Our saint was productive during these years.  He wrote three books:

1. Save Money! (1939),
2. Our Protestant Convictions (1941), and
3. When Christ Controls:  Stewardship Messages (1943).

Stewardship was Versteeg’s favorite topic about which to write.  He also wrote a hymn, though.  In 1926, our saint wrote a hymn for Psalm Sunday.  This text was “Does Thy Soul Leap Up Within Thee?” (The Hymnal, 1941, #139).

While in Cincinnati, Versteeg did much more.

1. He served as the president of the Greater Cincinnati Writers’ League (1942-1944).
2. He was the president of the Council of Churches in Greater Cincinnati (1941-1944).
3. He founded the Cincinnati School of Religion.
4. He chaired the Social Service Commission of the Ohio Annual Conference (1943-1944).
5. He sat on the regional War Labor Board (1943-1945).
6. He was a lecturer in Biblical Literature at the University of Cincinnati (1943-1944).
7. He took a seat on the denominational Executive Committee of the Commission on Church Union (1944-1956).
8. He was a delegate to the General Conference (1940).

Furthermore, Versteeg received more academic honors.  Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, awarded him the Doctor of Divinity degree in 1942.  Ohio Northern University, Ada, Ohio, granted our saint the Doctor of Sacred Theology degree in 1945.

Versteeg served as the District Superintendent of the Lima District, based in Lima, Ohio, from 1945 to 1951.  During these years, he remained active in other denominational capacities.

1. He was a delegate to the General Conferences of 1948.
2. He chaired the denominational Commission on Social Action (1948f).

Also, Union College, Schenectady, New York, awarded our saint the Doctor of Letters degree in 1946.

Versteeg served as the pastor of First Methodist (now United Methodist) Church, Athens, Ohio (1951-1957).  By 1952, he doubled as a lecturer for the denominational Board of Ministerial Training.  He was also a delegate to the General Conference of 1952.

Versteeg was the Director of Libraries at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Delaware,  Ohio (1957-1960).  Then he retired.

Versteeg served in other capacities, too.  He was a delegate to more than one World Methodist Conference.  He also belonged to the American Society of Church History.  This historical interest manifested itself in a book, Methodism:  Ohio Area (1812-1962) (1962).

Our saint, aged 88 years, died on January 14, 1977.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 29, 2021 COMMON ERA

PROPER 17:  THE FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF THE BEHEADING OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

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O God, our heavenly Father, who raised up your faithful servant John Marinus Versteeg,

to be a pastor in your Church and to feed your flesh:

Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit,

that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ

and stewards of your divine mysteries;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with

you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

Acts 20:17-35

Psalm 84 or 84:7-11

Ephesians 3:14-21

Matthew 24:42-47

–Adapted from Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), 719

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Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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I have been the librarian of my parish, St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, since 2014.  In that capacity, I have poured myself into the job.  I have donated many of the books, much of the iconography, three of the bookcases, and many of the decorations.  I have also tended carefully to the collection.  I have purged it, pruned it, and expanded it.

I have transformed the parish library, once just a literary space, into a sacred space.

I must leave the Athens area and my parish soon.  Life contains times and seasons.  The time to live in Athens is nearly at an end.  The next chapter, which will entail being much closer to family, will commence.

The current configuration of the furniture is due to the pandemic.  Social distancing entails moving sofas and chairs farther apart than in usual times.

Before I left, I wanted to have a photographic record of the library as it exists upon my departure.  This library has been a happy space for me.  I have spent much time working in here, oblivious to the passage of time.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 29, 2021 COMMON ERA

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Above:  Blessed María Dolores Rodríguez Sopeña y Ortega

Image in the Public Domain

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BLESSED MARÍA DOLORES RODRÍGUEZ SOPEÑA Y ORTEGA

(DECEMBER 30, 1848-JANUARY 10, 1918)

Founder of the Centers of Instruction, the Association of the Sodality of the Virgin Mary, the Ladies of the Catechetical Institute, the Association of the Apostolic Laymen/the Sopeña Lay Movement, the Works of the Doctrines/the Center for the Workers, and the Social and Cultural Work Sopeña/the Sopeña Catechetical Institute

Blessed María Dolores Rodríguez Sopeña y Ortega comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via the Roman Catholic Church.

Blessed María came from a devout Spanish family.  She, born in Velez Rubio on December 30, 1848, was the fourth of seven children of Nicolasa Ortega Salomon and Tomas Rodríguez Sopeña.  He worked as the administrator of the Marqueses de Velez farms before getting a job as a magistrate in 1866.

Blessed María spent most of her life helping the less fortunate.  She, not caring about status and materialism, valued “the least of these.”  In Almeria, where her father was the judge (1866-1869), our saint, who had poor eyesight, helped her sisters, afflicted with typhoid fever.  She also ministered to a leper.  In 1869, Tomas transferred to Puerto Rico and took a son with him.  The rest of the family moved to Madrid.  Blessed María commenced catechetical work with women in prison, patents in the Princess Hospital, and pupils in Sunday Schools.

The family reunited in Puerto Rico in 1872.  There, Blessed María, 24 years old, tried to join the Sisters of Charity the following year.  Her poor eyesight prevented our saint from joining that order.  Blessed María, therefore, struck out on her own.  She began to work in impoverished neighborhoods and founded the Centers for Instruction.  The curriculum consisted of the catechism and general instruction.  Medical assistance was also available.  Blessed María also founded the Association of the Sodality of the Virgin Mary, members of which staffed the Centers for Instruction.

After Nicolasa died in 1877, the family returned to Madrid later that year. Blessed María spent the next six years taking care of her father and tending to the less fortunate.  Then Tomas died in 1883.  Our saint, struggling to find her vocation, joined a Salesian convent in 1883.  Ten days later, she left it.  The contemplative life did not fit our saint.

Blessed María vocation was social work, especially with women.  She formalized community centers for this social work as part of a new organization, Works of the Doctrines, in 1885.  Eventually, this organization took the name “Center for the Workers.”

In Madrid, in 1892, Blessed María founded the Association of the Apostolic Laymen (now the Sopeña Lay Movement).  The work of this order expanded into eight neighborhoods in Madrid the following year.

Our saint expanded her apostolic work across Spain in 1896.  She founded the Ladies of the Catechetical Institute in Toledo in 1901.  The following year, Blessed María founded the Social and Cultural Work Sopeña (now the Sopeña Catechetical Institute.  She became this order’s Superior General in 1910.

The Sopeña Catechetical Institute expanded into the Americas in 1917.

Blessed María, aged 69 years, died in Madrid on January 10, 1918.

Pope John Paul II declared our saint a Venerable in 1992 then beatified her in 2003.

Blessed María’s institutional legacy continues via the Sopeña Catechetical Institute and the Sopeña Lay Movement.

Consider two words, O reader.  Those words are orthodoxy and orthopraxy.  Orthodoxy is right belief.  Orthopraxy is right practice.  The two are properly like two sides of a coin.  One is like what one does, and as one thinks, one does and is.  When I consider elements of conventional Christian orthodoxy in the past and the present, I find a mixed bag of healthy spirituality and spiritual creepy crawlies.  I, as a student of history, know from primary sources that many Americans defended racially-defined, chattel slavery by quoting the Bible, for example.  I also recall reading such arguments recycled, well into the twentieth century, to justify Jim Crow.  I know, from the words of those who made these arguments, that these were matters, partially, of scriptural authority for those advocates.

The standard to follow is love–not vague love, not puppy love, not make-people-feel-good-for-now love.  The standard to follow is love.  Love builds up people.  Love is tangible.  Love is selfless.  Love hurts sometimes, too.  Love is willing to accompany a beloved one through hell.

Blessed María loved “the least of these.”  In doing so, she demonstrated her love of Jesus.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 28, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT AMBROSE OF MILAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP. SAINT MONICA OF HIPPO, MOTHER OF SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO; AND SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF HIPPO REGIUS

THE FEAST OF DENIS WORTMAN, U.S. DUTCH REFORMED MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF EDMOND L. BUDRY, SWISS REFORMED, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF LAURA S. COPERHAVER, U.S. LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER AND MISSIONARY LEADER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MOSES THE BLACK, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ABBOT, AND MARTYR

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O God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served,

and to give his life for the life of the world.

Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom

the world offers no comfort and little help.

Through us give hope to the hopeless,

love to the unloved,

peace to the troubled,

and rest to the weary,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Hosea 2:18-23

Psalm 94:1-15

Romans 12:9-21

Luke 6:20-36

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), 60

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ADVERTISEMENTS, ASSAULTS UPON HUMAN DIGNITY

Once upon a time, when I had a head full of black hair and dinosaurs roamed the planet, I lived near Cordele, Georgia.  Cordele had a local, independent UHF television station.  I watched enough of that station’s output to realize that the shows interrupted the advertisements.  Even worse, most of these advertisements were, to be polite, homespun.

I have noticed the same issue becoming worse on YouTube in recent years.  The advertisements are not always well-produced either.  I enjoy certain YouTube channels.  One, in particular, consists of men exploring abandoned buildings and cemeteries in western Georgia and eastern Alabama.  I, being a student of history, enjoy old buildings and cemeteries.  Call me weird, if you choose, O reader.  The content is fascinating.  The irritating factor is that, every five minutes, an advertisement interrupts the video.

I used to listen to much music on YouTube.  I, being a Western classicist, am a natural music snob.  I attest that any genre of music that is neither classical nor jazz is inferior to them.  As I once said in reference to country music, it fits the technical definition of music.  And to quote Cynthia Tucker, of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, from some years ago,

Rappers would starve if they had to sing for their supper.

I may have insulted some sacred cows.  So be it.  (If I cannot express my opinions on my own weblogs, where can I express them?)  Anyhow, I used to listen to much music on YouTube.  I tired of advertisements interrupting sublimely beautiful music.

I can, of course, pay YouTube not to do this to me.  I refuse, on principle.  I refuse on the grounds that I should not have to pay people NOT to advertise to me.  The summary of my attitude toward 99.99 percent of advertising is,

Is it over yet?

Relentless advertising is an assault upon human dignity.  Your dignity, O reader, stems from you having a pulse and bearing the image of God.  So does my dignity.  My value–your value–is inherent; it has nothing to do with the ability and/or willingness to purchase or watch anything.

Here I stand.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 28, 2021 COMMON ERA

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Our faith is in the Christ who walks

Above:  The Logo of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Fair Use

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THOMAS CURTIS CLARK (JANUARY 8, 1877-DECEMBER 7, 1953)

U.S. Disciples of Christ Evangelist, Poet, and Hymn Writer

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With men today, in street and mart;

The constant friend who thinks and talks

With those who seek him with the heart.

–Thomas Curtis Clark, from Hymn #545, The Worshipbook:  Services and Hymns (1972)

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Thomas Curtis Clark comes to this, A Great Cloud of Witnesses:  An Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days, via The Hymnal (1941), of the old Evangelical and Reformed Church.

Clark, born in Vincennes, Indiana, on January 8, 1877, wrote more than sixty hymns.  His mother was Emma Rose Jennings Clark.  Our saint’s father was the Reverend Thomas Jefferson Clark, a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Clark studied at Indiana University, Bloomington (A.B., 1899), then at The University of Chicago (1901-1902).

Our saint suffered a nervous breakdown in Chicago in 1902.  He moved to Bloomington, where his father was a minister.  During this time of physical, emotional, and spiritual frailty, Clark wrote his first poems and hymns.  One of these texts was a hymn, “God is Not Far from Any One of Us” (1903).

God is not far from any one of us;

The wildflower by the wayside speaks His love;

Each blithesome bird bears tidings from abovef;

Sunshine and shower His tender mercies prove,

And men know not His voice!

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God is not from any one of us;

He speaks to us in every glad sunrise;

His glory floods us from the noonday skies;

The stars declare His love when daylight dies,

And men know not His voice!

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God is not far from any one of us;

He watches o’er His children day and night;

On every darkened soul He sheds this light;

Each burdened heart He cheers, and lends His might

To all who know His voice.

–Hymn #78, The Hymnal (1941)

Clark worked in a few jobs before he found his calling.  He taught high school in Washington, Indiana.  Then our saint became a singing evangelist.  He also worked in the piano business.

Clark’s calling was religious publishing.  He was an assistant editor of church school literature at the Christian Board of Publication, St. Louis, Missouri (1906-1911).  Our saint was also the poetry editor of The Christian Century (1912-1948), the editor of The Christian Century Quarterly (1919f), and a member of the editorial staff of The Christian Century Pulpit (1929f).

Clark married Hazel Davis in June 1910.  The couple remained married for the rest of our saint’s life.  In writing, he described Hazel as

the most devoted Christian I know.

Of Clark’s hymns, few have survived in current denominational hymnals in the age of “seven-eleven songs.”  Once upon a time, however, these texts were more popular.  Our saint wrote far more than seven words a congregation sang eleven times.  One text, “Thou Father of Us All” (1942), was one of three award winners in a Hymn Society of America contest in 1943.  (The words are under copyright, according to hymnary.org.)  x

Clark wrote, edited, and compiled books.  They included:

1. Poems and Songs (1909);
2. Friendly Town (1917);
3. Love Off to the War, and Other Poems (1918);
4. Lincoln, and Others (1923);
5. A Child’s Thought of God (1927), with Esther A. Gillespie;
6. The New Patriotism:  Poems of World Brotherhood (1927);
7. Quotable Poems:  An Anthology of Modern Verse, Volume I (1928), with Esther A. Gillespie;
8. Poems of Justice (1929);
9. The Master of Men:  Quotable Poems about Jesus (1930);
10. Poems for Special Dats and Occasions (1930);
11. It Shall Not Be Again (1931);
12. The Golden Book of Faith (1931);
13. Quotable Poems:  An Anthology of Modern Verse, Volume II (1931);
14. Abraham Lincoln:  Thirty Poems (1934);
15. One Hundred Poems of Peace:  An Anthology (1934);
16. Home Roads and Far Horizons–Songs and Sonnets (1935);
17. The Golden Book of Religious Verse (1937);
18. 1000 Quotable Poems:  An Anthology of Modern Verse (1937), with Esther A. Gillespie;
19. Fifty Lincoln Poems (1939);
20. Poems for Life (1941);
21. God’s Dreams:  Poems (1943);
22. Poems for the Great Days (1948);
23. Today is Mine:  A Manual of Devotion (1950);
24. Christ in Poetry:  An Anthology (1952); and
25. The Golden Book of Immortality:  A Treasury of Testimony (1954), with Hazel Davis Clark.

Our saint, aged 76 years, died on December 7, 1953.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 27, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THOMAS GALLAUDET AND HENRY WINTER SYLE, EPISCOPAL PRIESTS AND EDUCATORS OF THE DEAF

THE FEAST OF SAINT AMADEUS OF CLERMONT, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK; AND HIS SON, SAINT AMADEUS OF LAUSANNE, FRENCH-SWISS ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP

THE FEAST OF GEORGE THOMAS COSTER, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINSTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HUMANITARIAN

THE FEAST OF HENRIETTE LUISE VON HAYN, GERMAN MORAVIAN HYMN WRITER

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Dear God of beauty,

you have granted literary ability and spiritual sensitivity to

Thomas Curtis Clark and others, who have composed hymn texts.

May we, as you guide us,

find worthy hymn texts to be icons,

through which we see you.

In the Name of God:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 44:1-3a, 5-15

Psalm 147

Revelation 5:11-14

Luke 2:8-20

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 20, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN PASTOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCELLINUS OF EMBRUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF OLAVUS AND LAURENTIUS PETRI, RENEWERS OF THE CHURCH

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What Isn’t Controversial?

Today I conducted a Google search on The Starlost (1973-1974), one of the infamously bad science fiction series.  Ed Wood movies were bad, but they had the virtue of being so bad they were accidentally comedic.  The series, available for free at YouTube and archive.org, had bad sets, special effects, hair, wardrobes, writing, acting, and directing.  The series, which established an intriguing premise in the first episode, abandoned that premise almost immediately.  Also, scripts also kept referring to a

Class-G solar star.

The series, put out of its misery after sixteen episodes, was a train wreck.

Today I found an online article (dated April 11, 2021) proclaiming The Starlost

the most controversial sci-fi show of all time.

The author (whose name I found easily but choose not to use in this post) committed what advertising people call puffery.  He, for example, used “most” and “of all time.”  He exaggerated reality and, in so doing, made a statement impossible to confirm.  His headline was ridiculous.  The Starlost may have been controversial, but mainly it was inept.

This online story prompted me to revisit a topic that disturbs me, hence the existence of this post.

“Controversial” is a word that means little or nothing in an age of “alternative facts” and of entitled “snowflakes” from a variety of perspectives, left and right, who thrive on their outrage.  To describe anything as controversial is merely to acknowledge its existence in an age of verbal sniping.  To call anything controversial is on par with describing water as being wet.

Somewhere, some water “truther” is arguing that water is not wet.  Mark my words, O reader.

You, O reader, ought not to mistake me for a spiritual giant and a person gifted with rare insights; I do not.  I do know some lessons and possess some wisdom, however.  Life can prove educational, if one pays attention.  From my fountain of wisdom, such as it is, I offer this insight:  Life is too short to go through it in a state of perpetual outrage.  Yes, injustice should prompt outrage.  If, for example, human trafficking does not trigger your moral compass, O reader, I do not want to know you.  Balance is crucial.  Focusing on and manufacturing controversies that need not exist is one result of hypersensitivity.  Hypersensitivity is a reaction against insensitivity.  I propose settling in the middle and practicing balanced sensitivity–minus the -in and the -hyper.

Life is short.  Coping with death ought to teach one what really matters.  We human beings ought to extend grace to ourselves and each other.  I care more about a person’s character in the present day and the immediate past than long ago.  One’s character long ago is relevant if it is also one’s character in the present day and the immediate past.  Yet people change, for good and for ill.  The version of Kenneth Taylor writing this post differs greatly from many previous iterations of him.  I evaluate myself on the basis of who I am and was recently, not who I was x years ago.  Also, everybody has proverbial skeletons and creepy-crawlies in the equally proverbial closet.  If we are bent of character assassination, based on who someone used to be, we have no moral right to complain when others treat us as we have treated others.  Mutual forbearance and forgiveness would reduce much needless controversy.

The Starlost remains inept, nearly half a century later.  I do not consider it worthy of the word “controversial.”  The series is that bad.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 26, 2021 COMMON ERA

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